Sunday, April 06, 2014

Parent Engagement is something I have been thinking a lot about this year. The more it percolated in my mind the more I came to believe that I needed to think about it differently. This led me to think about Family Engagement.Parent engagement is different then Family engagement. After all, our students go home to siblings that are not yet school age, Grandparents, and other relatives who may live with them. I wanted to consider a way to include and engage everyone in the entire home. Many people influence our kids and that ripple effect is far reaching. Each family member has a Voice which needs to feel worthy, to be proudly expressed, and to be accepted with loving kindness. So, how could I connect school life and family life?What I came up with is the One Family Word challenge.I envisioned each family having a conversation about choosing a Word to motivate and inspire them. A Word to encourage each family member to be the best they could be and a reminder for how they want to live as a Family.

The intention was to bring Family and School together in a simple, yet meaningful way in which everyone can participate and show support for each other in our school community.Here is the text that is in the middle of the above photo:

One Word.

That is all it takes.To motivate. To inspire. To transform.Words Matter.They can encourage. They can empower.
They can nurture. They can ignite and take you wherever you envision.

You Matter.You can change the world. You can help others.
You make a difference just by embracing your Self. You can do anything.

One Family Word.Imagine what can be achieved with the caring
support of your Family. Look at these Words selected by our families.
They are Awesome.

Our School Community100 families and counting have taken up the One
Family Word challenge. We can harness this energy and do wonderful things
together.

I have no idea where this may lead or what comes next. Just that it is part of the adventure and that together we can offer caring support and personal inspiration to each individual's journey with One Family Word.